MF Doom

I spent 35 years growing up in the U.S., and it had its ups and downs.

I can't perform without the mask or be seen without it on stage, or else it'll distract from the whole persona.

Doom is a classic supervillain, akin to the Phantom of the Opera. It's not about revenge so much as, like, 'I'm back - now watch this!' It all boils down to the music. The mask is a slight theme for people to enjoy, and it adds mystery.

I have no friends here apart from the dudes at my record label, and I didn't go to school with no one. Nobody knows me - I'm incognito. It's all new, all fun.

The song 'Bite the Thong' in particular, with Damon Albarn, really encapsulates the whole dilemma of, 'Hmm, should I stay on the underground when everybody else is selling out?' Nowadays, you can just do it - have your name-brand clothes, do songs with rock n' rollers - and it's not considered selling out.

Everybody nowadays rhymes, but out of the people that really, really do it well, it's still a small community of artists. We all tend to be in the same circles - people like my Wu-Tang brothers, or Black Thought from The Roots.